Kostelic: WCup favoring speedsters
Source: Agencies |
January 19, 2010, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
IVICA Kostelic accused World Cup organizers on Sunday of skewing the Alpine skiing circuit in favor of speed racers at the expense of slalom specialists.
Kostelic said that technical skiers like him are being made to "look like fools" in super-combined events biased toward the downhill specialists. "It's a shame and insulting to slalom skiers," the 30-year-old Croat said at a post-race media conference after winning his ninth career slalom at Wengen, Switzerland.
Kostelic said that a true technical skier had won the overall World Cup title just once in the past 15 years - Benjamin Raich of Austria in 2006. The schedule comprises around 35 total races in the technical slalom and giant slalom disciplines, the downhill and super-G speed disciplines, plus the super-combi event that balances the two styles.
He spoke out after being asked about Friday's super-combi at Wengen - a morning downhill followed by a single slalom run in the afternoon - where he placed sixth, 1.36 seconds behind winner Bode Miller of the United States.
The downhill was run on the lower section of the Lauberhorn piste, one of the most challenging in the world.
Kostelic described the design of Friday's slalom course as "the easiest setting ever."
"When it's difficult, you have to show if you can do it or not," he said. "Let's not make it so easy that anyone can do it."
Kostelic said technical skiers already had reduced chances of winning when the trend in super-combi was for a downhill of nearly two minutes and a slalom of about 45 seconds. "This is like spitting in the face of the slalom skier," he said.
The combined event was a downhill and two-leg slalom when Kostelic won an Olympic silver medal behind American Ted Ligety at the 2006 Turin Winter Games.
"The only true combined is the whole downhill and the whole (two-run) slalom," said Kostelic, who won the World Cup slalom title in 2002 and has twice been second, but has a best finish of fourth in the overall classification, achieved last season.
Four other skiers have won the men's overall title in the past decade - Austrians Hermann Maier and Stephan Eberharter, Miller and Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway - and none finished in the top three of the slalom standings in their championship season.
Only Miller of that quartet has a World Cup slalom victory on his record. He has five, the most recent in December 2004 at Sestriere, Italy.
Kostelic's win on Sunday was his first since December 2008, and came five weeks after he underwent a seventh operation on his right knee.
Kostelic said that technical skiers like him are being made to "look like fools" in super-combined events biased toward the downhill specialists. "It's a shame and insulting to slalom skiers," the 30-year-old Croat said at a post-race media conference after winning his ninth career slalom at Wengen, Switzerland.
Kostelic said that a true technical skier had won the overall World Cup title just once in the past 15 years - Benjamin Raich of Austria in 2006. The schedule comprises around 35 total races in the technical slalom and giant slalom disciplines, the downhill and super-G speed disciplines, plus the super-combi event that balances the two styles.
He spoke out after being asked about Friday's super-combi at Wengen - a morning downhill followed by a single slalom run in the afternoon - where he placed sixth, 1.36 seconds behind winner Bode Miller of the United States.
The downhill was run on the lower section of the Lauberhorn piste, one of the most challenging in the world.
Kostelic described the design of Friday's slalom course as "the easiest setting ever."
"When it's difficult, you have to show if you can do it or not," he said. "Let's not make it so easy that anyone can do it."
Kostelic said technical skiers already had reduced chances of winning when the trend in super-combi was for a downhill of nearly two minutes and a slalom of about 45 seconds. "This is like spitting in the face of the slalom skier," he said.
The combined event was a downhill and two-leg slalom when Kostelic won an Olympic silver medal behind American Ted Ligety at the 2006 Turin Winter Games.
"The only true combined is the whole downhill and the whole (two-run) slalom," said Kostelic, who won the World Cup slalom title in 2002 and has twice been second, but has a best finish of fourth in the overall classification, achieved last season.
Four other skiers have won the men's overall title in the past decade - Austrians Hermann Maier and Stephan Eberharter, Miller and Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway - and none finished in the top three of the slalom standings in their championship season.
Only Miller of that quartet has a World Cup slalom victory on his record. He has five, the most recent in December 2004 at Sestriere, Italy.
Kostelic's win on Sunday was his first since December 2008, and came five weeks after he underwent a seventh operation on his right knee.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
